Soccer at its best

Main menu

Post navigation

A Quick Guide to Football Betting Options

Anyone who sets out to place a football bet for the very first time may be surprised to discover that there are dozens of different bet types to choose from.

Some enable the bettor to make more specific predictions about the outcome of a match in an effort to make bigger profits, if their predictions are accurate. Others actually give bettors the chance to make money from football betting, even without predicting the overall outcome of the match as a whole.

This quick guide to football betting options highlights the most popular types of bets that are available, and explains how they work.

Match Result

The most common football bet involves predicting the overall result of a match when the full-time whistle is blown after 90 minutes of play (plus any stoppage time). You can bet on which team will win, or on the match resulting as a draw, and the odds available will – as in all other football bets – reflect the previous performance of the teams involved.

Note, that the match result bet does not normally include any extra time that is added to a match, so a match which is drawn at 90 minutes and then sees extra time being played (during a tournament game, for example) would be settled as a draw.

Half-Time Result

The half-time result market allows you to bet on what the result will be when the half-time whistle is blown after 45 minutes of play. In all other respects, this type of bet is identical to the match result bet, although the odds will obviously differ, depending on how the teams involved have played in the first halves of their previous matches.

Half-Time/Full-Time Result

Also known as the ‘double result’ bet, this market requires you to bet on what the result will be at both half-time and full-time. Because you effectively have to make two predictions, the chances of success with this type of bet are slimmer than in the match result or half-time result markets, but the odds paid are more generous to reflect that fact.

Draw No Bet

Some online betting sites allow you to bet in a ‘Draw No Bet’ market. This offers odds about each of the two teams winning the match, but if the match results in a draw, all bets are void and any money you bet will be returned to your account.

Correct Score

This market enables you to predict what the final score of a match will be when the full-time whistle is blown after 90 minutes of play.

The most common score lines are priced for every match, and the odds offered for each will depend on their likelihood according to the odds-makers. An ‘any other score’ outcome is also offered for those who want to bet on a score line which is not listed.

Half-Time Score

The half-time score bet works in exactly the same way as the correct score bet, but here you must predict what the score will be when the half-time whistle is blown after 45 minutes of play.

Number of Goals Scored

Bettors can predict how many goals will be scored in total by the time the full-time whistle is blown. This is done by betting that the number of goals scored will be under or over a certain value.

For example, bet on Under 0.5 goals and you are effectively saying that you don’t expect any goals to be scored, and your bet would win in that situation, but it would lose if one or more goals were scored. Similarly, a bet on Over 2.5 goals would win if three or more goals were scored, but it would lose if two or fewer goals were scored.

Both Teams to Score

One of the simplest of football betting markets is the one that allows you to bet on whether or not both teams will score a goal during the 90 minutes of play. This is a straightforward Yes or No proposition, and if you answer it correctly, your bet will win.

First Goalscorer

The first goalscorer betting markets tend to offer quite impressive odds, but that’s because you have to predict which player will be the first to score a goal in a given match.

Each player in this market will be offered at different odds, according to a number of factors, such as their playing position and their previous goal-scoring record. A striker who is a prolific goal-scorer would therefore pay lower odds than a defender who scores rarely. If you think that no goal will be scored then you can bet on ‘no goalscorer’, and the odds for that outcome will usually be the same as for betting on the 0-0 result in the correct score market.

Cards Shown

How many cards will be shown to players during a particular match? That is the question that bettors must answer in the cards markets. The good news is that bettors don’t need to be exact about this, because the options usually will be for Over/Under a certain number of cards. For example, if you were to bet on ‘Over 3.5’ then there would need to be four or more cards shown for your bet to win.

Corners

The corners markets require bettors to predict how many corners will be taken in a particular match. There are several ways in which these markets can be offered. In some, you must state whether there will be Over/Under a certain number of corners, as in the cards shown and goals scored markets. In others, three or more categories are offered, such as ‘9 or Less’, ’10 – 12’ and ’13 or More’.

The number of football betting options that you can choose from is vast, and the ones highlighted here just happen to be the most popular. Explore the full range of available markets at your favourite betting site and you should definitely find several that take your interest.